Wright State University

In 1962, residents of Dayton, Ohio, raised three million dollars to help establish a public university in their city. After purchasing 482 acres of land next to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in 1962, construction began on Allyn Hall, the institution's first building. In 1964, Allyn Hall formally opened, housing branch campuses of The Ohio State University and Miami University.

In 1967, once the two campuses exceeded a combined five thousand enrolled students, the Ohio government formally established Wright State University. The Ohio General Assembly selected the name Wright State University in honor of Dayton's Wright brothers. The campus grew quickly, partly due to a fourteen million grant from the Ohio legislature. In 1970, the campus opened its first resident hall, becoming both a residential and commuter campus. This same year, enrollment soared to eleven thousand students.

In 2005, Wright State boasted an enrollment of 17,074 students. More than ten thousand students came from the Miami Valley area of Ohio. An additional 562 students, representing sixty-seven countries, were international students. Wright State University offered 109 undergraduate and forty-six graduate degree programs.